English 224: Chaucer - The Canterbury Tales

Books

Use CONSORT and OhioLINK to find relevant books.

Consider searching by subject heading for more precise results: when you find a book that seems promising, click on the subject heading links at the bottom of the record to see similar items. You can also select "subject heading" in the "search by" box and try the following:

Or search for works about a particular tale:

Journal Articles

There are two ways to search for journal articles. The first way is to start with a citation--for example, from a bibliography or from an explanatory note in Larry D. Benson's 2000 edition of The Canterbury Tales, the primary text for this course. If the note cites an article from The Chaucer Review, perform a journal title search in CONSORT to see if Kenyon owns the journal, and then access the specific article electronically, if possible, or in print by locating the appropriate volume on the shelf. Current periodicals are on the second floor of Olin, while bound volumes of older journals are on the first floor of Chalmers. Bear in mind that many important resources--including The Chaucer Review--aren't available electronically or are only available for certain years/volumes, so you will need to use the print versions.

The other way to search for journal articles is to use an index or an electronic database. Some databases include the full text of articles, while others are indexes of citations. (When using an index, follow up with the process above to see if Kenyon owns the article you need.)

JSTOR
Provides access to the full content of a variety of scholarly journals. Coverage generally begins with volume one of a journal, and ends 2-5 years from the present. Journals may be browsed or searched.

OhioLINK Electronic Journal Center: Arts and Humanities Journals
Includes the full text of approximately 40 arts and humanities journals from Elsevier, Academic Press, Springer-Verlag, Kluwer and Project Muse.

Modern Languages Association Bibliography (MLA)
Modern Bibliographic citations covering scholarly work in literature, linguistics, and folklore worldwide. Sources include journal and book articles, dissertations, monographs, and series.

ABELL-- Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature
ABELL provides citations to monographs, periodical articles, critical editions of literary works, book reviews, collections of essays and doctoral dissertations published anywhere in the world.

Iter (Medieval and Renaissance Studies)
ITER is a bibliography of approximately 230,000 articles and reviews drawn from over 400 medieval and renaissance journal titles. Updated daily and with more than 60,000 new records added annually, this research tool will be of great use to scholars interested in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance (400-1700).

Humanities International Complete
A comprehensive database covering 1700 journals, as well as books and reference sources in the humanities. All data from American Humanities Index is included with the addition of international coverage. This database provides citation information for articles, essays and reviews, as well as original creative works including poems and fiction. Photographs, paintings and illustrations are also referenced.

Academic Search Complete
Provides full text journal coverage for nearly all academic areas of study, including social sciences, humanities, education, computer sciences, engineering, language and linguistics, arts and literature, medical sciences, and ethnic studies.

Selected Reference Works

Helpful reference works for Chaucer studies include bibliographies, dictionaries, concordances, and glossaries. These resources are shelved in the reference collection on the second floor.

Chaucer Name Dictionary: PR1903 .D4 1988

Chaucer A to Z: PR1903 .R67 1999

Annotated Chaucer Bibliography 1986-1996: PR1905 .B69 2002

Chaucer: A Bibliographical Introduction: PR1905 .L49 1986

Oxford Companion to Chaucer: PR1924 .O94 2003

A Chaucer Glossary: PR1941 .C5 1979

A Concordance to the Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer and to the Romaunt of the Rose: PR1941 .T3

Oxford English Dictionary: PE1625 .O87 1989 (or online)

Oxford Classical Dictionary: DE5 .O9 1996

Selected Internet Sites

When using the Internet for research, it is imperative to think critically about the authority and validity of web resources, and to use sites that are appropriately scholarly in nature.

Questions to ask as you evaluate Internet resources

Chaucer Metapage

Essential Chaucer